1. Found this article by Claire Wolfe the other day. Written in 2009, it’s remarkably prescient, especially the parts about potential pandemic: https://www.backwoodshome.com/preparing-for-civil-unrest/

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   1. Interesting reading. But from 09 to 16 vast majorities of people where in lalaland cause Obama. Will be interesting if this continues into next year and Biden is president. The left will demand compliance to any and all things. Question will be, what will the non left do?

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2. What do they think will happen when the government runs out of money? Or, rather, when other countries stop accepting America’s IOUs?

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   1. The government can’t run out of money! It’s like the bank in the “Monopoly” game; the rules say the bank does not run out of money, ever — if there’s no more in the box, then the “banker” must use a tally sheet, or tokens, or print their own paper money. But the bank does not carry a debt; all payouts get paid.

      So if the government might run out of money, they must use a tally sheet (digital funds, or electronic benefits transfer [EBT]), or tokens (IRS checks), or print more paper money. But the government does not carry a debt; all payouts get paid.

      (Oh, wait….)

      Okay, that was semi-tongue-in-cheek. In all seriousness, “Monopoly” was created in the early 20th century, when America was still on the gold standard. Money held value separate from the fluctuations in the economy, and the rules of the game reflected that fixed value.

      Here in reality, we’ve been off the gold standard for a long time, the government “running out of money” and making more is how inflation happens, when it happens a lot you get hyperinflation, and with the world’s preference for the American dollar as the currency of choice because it’s so historically stable, instability and hyperinflation of the dollar will upset the world economy.

      Or, the world will switch to the Euro and watch more-or-less unaffected as the American economy swirls the toilet.

      But because hyperinflation has never happened here, Democrats are living under the belief that it can’t happen here, no matter how much money the government “prints”.

      That belief is an illusion, and an extremely dangerous one.

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      1. Remember that some quack academics have come up with a fairy tale called Modern Monetary Theory, which amounts to “the government can print money without limit and without adverse consequences”.
         These morons are apparently taken seriously in some circles; AOC appears to be an acolyte. I think it’s a French delusion. Curious that these people have never heard of Weimar Germany, nor of Zimbabwe. Oh well.
         Of course, the seeds for this were sown in 1913 when the USA abandoned the gold standard. (Don’t believe FDR or Nixon did so; what the USA had between 1913 and then wasn’t a gold standard, only a bit of fakery pretending to be something vaguely like a gold standard.)

         1. Oh, I know. And part of the problem is that a country can do whatever it wants within its own borders – setting prices, giving everyone $1200, adding a zero to everyone’s bank accounts, et cetera.

            But at some point it simply becomes unsustainable, if for no other reason than it all fails the “giggle test” for too many people … including those in other countries who are in a position to sell you stuff you no longer can produce domestically.

            Why work if you can get as much money on unemployment / welfare / universal basic income? Some of us would, certainly; but some of us who would prefer to work, will also simply not want to pay 90%+ taxes to support multiple other people who don’t choose to work for their own living. This is the Social Security problem writ large.

            1. Boris, even that much is not accurate. Countries can’t do what they want with their fake money even within their own borders.
               Ludwig von Mises spelled this out very nicely in his book “The theory of money and credit” (free download from the Mises foundation website). Commerce is the exchange of things between parties, such that each party receives something held more valuable (by that party) than the thing given. And money is an object that is believed to retain its value over time, so that I can exchange a thing for money now and exchange that money for something else later, and not lose (significantly) in the process.
               When hyperinflation happens, that process breaks down: I can’t accept money in exchange for something because that money has a much lower value tomorrow, or this afternoon, so there is no reliable profit. No profit means no commerce. And the historic examples show this nicely.

3. Just open your business and get on with your life. YOU and only you are responsible for you. Stand up to the bullies

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4. What happened to us? Seriously, what happened to the human race as a whole, and the US as a nation?

   Remember when we used to (GASP! The HORRORS!) take risks? Remember sending people to the moon? Remember having chicken pox parties? Remember roller skating without a helmet and elbow pads? There was a time when polio was out there, and swimming pools were a major vector, but we went swimming anyway. Woodstock (the original) happened during a pandemic.

   But, now. We are so terrified of a virus that we are willing to hide in our basements. Why?

5. Both “sides” are doing more tribal signalling than thought.

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